This dissertation analyzes the relationships between black religious discourse and the moral panic surrounding contemporary black youth culture. Focusing on the public discourses of black preachers (i.e. sermons, essays, articles, interviews, videos, musical recordings and other public utterances), the dissertation demonstrates the ways that such religious rhetoric both reinforces and resists prevailing perceptions of black youth as morally and socially deviant. At the center of the dissertation are three case studies that probe the interventionist strategies of three black activist preachers, who position themselves within the prophetic stream of the Black Church tradition. Each of these ministers make a public theological turn to popular culture- and hip-hop in particular- as a site of struggle over the meanings and values that define the social, political, and moral status of black youth within the social imaginary. The case studies in this dissertation resist reductionist readings of both black youth culture and the public theological discourses of black activist preachers. Rather, they reveal the moral complexity of black youth culture, and the moral urgency of a public theological discourse, informed by cultural analysis and criticism, that is committed to the flourishing of black youth in the era of hip-hop.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-12092013-195747 |
| Date | 20 December 2013 |
| Creators | McCormack, Michael Brandon |
| Contributors | Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas, Victor Anderson, Dale P. Andrews, John S. McClure |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-12092013-195747/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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